Jux: A Grand Scale Love Song
by ajremix
Summary: Based off Vaeru's Juxtaposition series. All sentient beings can feel love. Even the largest of them all. Utter. Crack.
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: So it seems like I'm going to be getting into the habit of saying this, but this is Cafei's fault. And Vaeru for refusing to be the voice of reason. And letting me publicly abuse her universe like this. But mainly it's all Cafei. I'm a slave to my imagination and my imagination is pretty much any enabler's best friend.

Crack. That's all the warning that should be said about this. Pure. Unadultered. Crack.

Also if you haven't read Vaeru's Juxtaposition series you probably won't get it.

* * *

Juxtaposition: A Grand Scale Love Song

* * *

Two things happened as the Decepticon ship peeled off its attack. The first was that all the lights in Metellus went to their lowest setting. The second was everything that Metullus controlled- doors, lifts, locks –all froze.

The third thing, immediately after the first two occurred, was they were hailed by the Wreckers.

"Primus slagging Pit," Ironhide cursed, even as Jazz replied to the query on if they needed any additional assistance. "Of all the ships to come to help us." The rest of the bridge crew rumbled their own displeasure.

Optimus Prime merely opened a ship-wide communications link. "All hands, stay where you are. We have Wreckers in the vicinity."

As one every mech onboard groaned.

* * *

She was the most gorgeous thing he'd ever seen and given his long life and even greater distances he's traveled that was not something to be said lightly. He loved everything about her, the cut of her planes, the way light played on her curves, the cool, composed red of her chassis. He loved looking at her length, her breadth, the enticing angles of her wings.

If she were just beautiful he could've ignored his infatuation or had gotten over it centuries ago. But no, she had to be so talented and relentless and loyal in her mission and her mechs. And so very, very clever. She teased him every time they met, purposefully mixing her signals, making him work for her acknowledgement and he'd scramble to prove himself worthy. She'd give him a trill of laughter each time he figured out her games, gave him little flirtatious surges, sending off sparks that would run subtle riots through his systems and he loved every single moment of it. He loved _her_ and there was nothing he wanted more in all the galaxies than to spend his time pleasing her, protecting her, being with her every instant he could.

He was- utterly –in love.

* * *

"Slaggit!" Ratchet snapped. "We don't need this right now! Wheeljack!"

"I got her." The engineer went over to Evelyn and carefully picked her up. He and Ratchet sat in the middle of the medbay, away from any doors or vents or cabinets.

"What's going on?" Evelyn asked, her eyes slowly adjusting to the dark. "Do we not like Wreckers? Are we going to be attacked again?"

Sideswipe chimed up in her head, though he sounded just as confused. _'We shouldn't be, the Wreckers are supposed to be one of our strike forces. I've never met them myself, but everyone's heard of them.'_

"Nah, they're on our side." Evelyn winced as Wheeljack spoke, his vocal indicators ruining her night vision. She shaded her eyes. "It's not the Wreckers themselves that's the problem. It's their ship. Xantium."

"What's wrong with their ship?"

Suddenly a long, slow vibration rippled through the deck and Evelyn belatedly recalled it was like being wrapped up in a cat's purr.

"Um, I guess the simplest way to put it would be that Metellus is in love with her."

"…"

_'Did your brain just short, or was that me?'_

"Ow."


	2. Chapter 2

Stop enabling me! D I don't know where I'm going with this so updates would be sporadic at best. If I ever update again which I'm not so like I said before stop enabling me. 

Note: As it's doubtful (to me, anyway) that sentient ships have vocalizers and comm waves are capable of being picked up by others, I'm under the impression that ships communicate through their sensor arrays. Since there scanners are generally pretty sharp to pick up all sorts of fluctuations in space and to get readings on other vessels, I'm supposing the ships scan little internal fluctuations in each other, reading how they 'feel' or 'react'. As these are very large beings with many complex parts, I wouldn't doubt these fluctuation could get very expressive.

Also Note: Metellus is a Cursor or battlecruiser. Xantium is technically a battlecruiser as well, but since I'm going with my Destruction-verse Xantium, she's a cruiser that was modified from a cargo ship so she wouldn't actually have the title herself. And no. I will not start up a weird sentient ship love-triangle. You can't make me. I'm not thinking about it. Really not. Really really.

* * *

Juxtaposition: A Grand Scale Love Song

* * *

When the last of the security walls fell beneath his decryption lines he found Xantium beyond, laughing happily at him. "I think that was a new record for you!" She trilled, circuits flexing in delight. "Metellus, is it possible that you missed me?" 

Such a shameless flirt, that one. But so long as she kept flirting with him, Metellus didn't care. "I didn't realize I wasn't supposed to." He teased right back. His sensors picked up the fluctuations of her 'laughter' again and it made his internals thrum hard to feel it.

She sidled up close to Metellus- closer than any navigator would have done on their own. "I've been hearing a lot about you recently," she purred under his sensors. Metellus shuddered and all the doors on his fourth deck starboard snapped open and slammed shut all at once. "Seems like you may be in need of an escort, perhaps?"

"If you're looking for the job, I may have a position in the wings available." Metellus would chase down and attack other ships preemptively if it meant Xantium would stay close to him.

"As tempting as the offer is," she looked so bold framed by the blue and white suns of a nearby binary system, "I am curious to know why the Decepticon fleet is now on the lookout for you."

Under normal circumstances Metellus would have scoffed at the news, but his sensors picked up a subtle flux in Xantium's system: cautious, concerned, perhaps a little anxious. As much as he felt thrilled that the other battlecruiser was worried about him, Metellus didn't want her to worry about anything. So he tried to change the subject. "They are? Who told you that?"

"Thanatos."

Metellus's halls went red with warning lights. "_Thanatos_?"

"Met, please." If a ship had optics, Xantium would be rolling them. "We're not having this talk again."

"He's a Decepticon warship!"

"Yes. I know. It was a business encounter."

Metellus went deadly silent. "Did he hurt you?"

"Met-"

"Did that slagging poor excuse for a barge touch you?" The unlucky mechs stuck in Metellus's washracks winced as things started to steam. "I'll hunt down that worthless piece of floating scrap-"

"Metellus Cursor." Xantium rumbled like a star ready to go nova, her energy readings crackling dangerously. "If you've finished belittling my ability to take care of myself…"

Metellus- metaphorically –shrunk back, his internal temperature dropping back to normal levels, lights returning to their previously dim settings. Everyone onboard sighed in relief. Xantium was a modified cargo vessel, smaller than any other battlecruiser, but she was still more than capable of giving even a warship like Thanatos a run for his money. "I apologize." He said penitently. "I didn't mean it like that."

Her own response was to soften in return. "So?" She pressed, moving in closer still. "Why would they be looking out for you?"

Metellus drifted sideways teasingly. "I can't tell you that." He sang. "That's classified."

That only got her more curious, drifting along with him. "Tell me."

"Can't." It was only partly true. Metellus wasn't _supposed_ to transmit the information to anyone, but he couldn't stop anyone from finding out for themselves. Especially Xantium and she knew it, just as she knew Metellus would look for excuses for her to search his banks.

"Is that so? I suppose I'll just have to figure it out then, won't I?" A shiver passed through Metellus as he felt Xantium's scanners running through him, finely tuned and crawling through all his tiniest spaces and circuits. She was playing with him even then, her sensors light over Metellus's coil and locking mechanisms, he felt her thrum deep in his transistors and generators, feeling as if she were inside of him just to feel him shudder around her. His monitors flashed with unintelligible information and all the energon dispensers overflowed and one of the aforementioned unfortunate mechs in his washracks yelped when he was doused with scalding fluids.

There was absolutely no way Xantium could not know how he felt. Not when she did things like that.

"You have an organic onboard?" The question was almost lost as Metellus tried to recover from her delicious assault. "Such an odd energy reading. Almost like…" Xantium fell silent, knowing better than to even show she knew. "That would be a fairly decent reason why."

"Her name is Evelyn." He replied, nearly panted if it were possible for a ship. "She's rather amusing."

Xantium hummed beautifully. "You'll have to tell me more about her next time. Seems it's time for me to go."

The Cursor's internals thrummed in disappointment. "Already? I suppose I'll see you later, then."

"Of course." Xantium hesitated, even as she slowly swung about. "Watch yourself out there, Met. If you ever need me…"

'I'll always need you', he didn't say. "I will." Metellus told her. As her presence slipped away, Metellus was reminded just how cold space really was.


	3. Chapter 3

Note: Ships, such as Xantium and Metellus and the lot of them, are fully capable of piloting themselves, as well as fighting themselves and doing most everything else themselves. However, there's an awful lot of internal workings that they have to spread their attentions to, so while they can evade and attack at the same time, it's more efficient to have an extra pair of hands worrying about aiming and firing or flying around so they can divert the attentions to other pressing matters. Like, say, dealing with any major damage to themselves and keeping those inside of them from flying around.

A Grand Scale Love Song

Springer stretched out in the command chair and decided now was a good time to get a couple reports finished up since they weren't looking to go anywhere for a bit. Seemed the other Wreckers had the same idea. Topspin and Scoop had gotten Sandstorm to play their dealer in some Cybertronian equivalent to blackjack until it became apparent that Sandstorm had yet to forgive Scoop for the attempt in adhering the triplechanger to the underside of his berth ('attempt' being the key word as Sandstorm onlined part way through the prank and could only kick out as the shovel ran from his quarters, cackling merrily, leaving Sandstorm to curse and eventually call someone to bring down some solvent and help scrub the gummy residue from his back). They ended up getting Roadbuster to jump into the roll, leaving Sandstorm to ogle through a list of wonderfully new (and most probably illegal) explosive devices with Twin Twist.

Springer winced only slightly as Xantium's lights flared almost painfully and a series of feathery rumbles rippled through her interior. He watched as Metellus's upper decks nearly filled the entirety of the forward view and chuckled again as he felt Xantium purring under him. In the two forward consoles Broadside and Whirl leaned forward and growled. Springer couldn't help but shake his head.

"I don't get it." He spoke up suddenly, getting only minor attention from the gamblers and none at all from the two fantasy shoppers. "What is it you don't like about Met?"

"He's not good enough for Xantium." Whirl said firmly. If he could narrow his optic, Springer was certain it would be a murderous slit as he watched the Cursor. Or what they could see of him.

"That's Prime's ship. How much 'better' does he have to be?"

"Not good enough."

Springer looked off to the side to exchange a quick glance with Roadbuster who merely shrugged his shoulder cannon in response. He looked over to the much larger triplechanger. "Side, you feel the same?" Broadside merely nodded tersely in response.

"C'mon, what is it about him that gets the two of you so worked up about? You can't be telling me it's because he's a battlecruiser. He's got plenty of victories to his name."

"That's not the point." The white helo said. "The point is, nothing Metellus can do will make him good enough for Ti."

Which, by proxy, meant nothing anyone could do would be good enough for Xantium. All navigators had a certain favoritism towards their particular ships but this was going beyond that. The other Wreckers wondered if it was because Whirl and Broadside had aerial alt forms. Except then they'd look at Springer and Sandstorm and they'd hold their hands up and say "I've got no clue what's going through their processors."

Springer just figured it was how they were. All the Wreckers had a degree of possessiveness and none of them were good at letting go of what was 'theirs'. That was only compounded by the fact that navigating brought a pseudo-symbiotic relationship between ship and mech. Nothing got Whirl or Broadside hot like something doing major damage to Xantium.

"She doesn't need Metellus." Broadside said with finality. "She could have half the fleet if she wanted."

The green triplechanger leaned heavily on his armrest. "Half the Decepticon fleet, too, if Thanatos is any indication."

The two turned to glare at their leader. "Thanatos is a lame fragging stalker. He should get himself smelted and save Ti the effort."

That got a quirk of Springer's lips. "So you'd prefer Metellus over Thanatos, then?"

"That's like asking to choose between a metal fatigue and terminal processor damage. They're both a pain in the aft but only one you'd rather kill yourself over. Of course Metellus is preferable over Thanatos! We don't have to worry about Metellus stabbing the lot of us in the back the moment he gets what he wants!"

That garnered snickers from the rest of them. "Can't say we can fault that logic."

Topspin, now effectively distracted from his game, had to ask, "So what would you do if Ti finally idid/i decide to stick with Met? You can't tell me you'd keep her from trying to be happy, right?"

"That is her decision to make." Roadbusted agreed with a nod. "We can't tell her what will make her happy any more than we could anyone else."

Whirl and Broadside sat back in their chairs, still glaring at Metellus as Xantium slowly began to drift back and turn away.

Whirl shook his head. "Alright, we can accept that she'll eventually find someone she likes enough to stick with them."

Broadside finished with a nod and final withering look at Metellus's blip on the scanners. "That doesn't mean we have to like them."


End file.
